UPDATE: Third fire in same Old Montreal building

Firefighters were working on a stubborn blaze in Old Montreal for most of the day Friday.

The fire began at around 12:30am in a building under constructions at 31 Saint-Jacques, near Saint-Laurent.

Firefighters could not get inside to fight the flames because the structure of the building being renovated was not safe.

They resorted to pouring water onto the building from the outside until engineers could determine that it was safe to enter.

This was the third fire in the building in less than two years. The first was November 2012 and the second was in November 2013.

A store across the street said the fires were impacting business.

“There’s no inspection of these buildings, these construction sites that last forever, why is it on fire again? It is all very sketchy to me. This morning when I saw CJAD tweet fire in the Old Port before I even clicked on the picture I knew it was going to be that building, I just knew it,” Virginia Champoux, the owner of Mortimer Snodgrass, a store across the street, said.

The arson squad will investigate the cause of the fire. It says the last two fires were accidental.